Sunday's 33-25 Saints loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday in Soldier Field cost the Saints their ever-so-slight hope at making a second straight postseason appearance.

It also brought the curtain down on arguably the most disappointing season in club history -- and that's saying a great deal considering the checkered history of the 41-year-old NFL franchise.

Six months ago, the Saints, coming off their first appearance in the NFC championship game -- dropped to the Bears here 343 days ago -- were the popular choice to not only make a repeat appearance in the conference title game, but advance to Super Bowl XLII to meet the best that the AFC had to offer.

No one planned on a 7-9 record.

"Seven-and-9 is a losing season," said Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who set one NFL record for completions in a season, set two team records (touchdown passes and yards in a season) and tied another club mark with 60 pass attempts in the game. "No one wants a losing season. This is very, very disappointing."

Needing a victory and losses by both Minnesota and Washington to earn the NFC's last wild-card playoff spot, the Saints couldn't take care of their own business.

Sunday's loss was a snapshot of the entire season: big plays allowed on defense, offensive self-destruction in the form of turnovers, suspect tackling, racking up big offensive numbers with little to show for the effort.

New Orleans out-gained the Bears 413 yards to 275, had 28 first downs to Chicago's 13, outrushed the Bears 105 to 96, out-passed Chicago 308 to 179.

The only bright spot on an otherwise gray afternoon was free-agent rookie running back Pierre Thomas. Thomas became the first player in Saints history to run for 100 yards (20 carries, 105) and have a 100-yard receiving day (12, 121 yards, one touchdown). His 226 yards from scrimmage is third-most in club history.

"My hat goes off to Pierre Thomas," center Jeff Faine said. "He had a great game. I thought he showed a lot of heart and played extremely well."

But when the Saints fell behind quickly 10-0, a field goal coming four plays after Brian Urlacher intercepted Brees on the Saints' first possession, a touchdown on a 19-yard Kyle Orton-to-Mark Bradley pass, it changed New Orleans' offensive outlook and forced Brees to throw the ball three times more than the Saints ran it.

Thomas had every rushing attempt Sunday -- tailback Aaron Stecker was in on just one play, his badly sprained toe minimizing his effectiveness.

"We got behind early and weren't able to run the ball as much as we'd planned on," Faine said. "They got us out of our game and we weren't able to get that momentum back and get back into the flow of it. That was the toughest part of it."

Again, that was a theme that played itself out all season, in the season-opening four-game losing streak that put the Saints into a hole from which they could not climb out, and in five additional losses.

"There were ups and there were downs, there were good times and there were bad times," said defensive tackle Hollis Thomas. "You never want your season to end like this."

Said Brees: "We really felt one of the other teams would slip up and we'd be in (the playoffs). It didn't work out."

Not much did.

The Saints planned coming into the game to punt the ball out of bounds, instead of to the dangerous Devin Hester, each time the opportunity arose.

The first three times Steve Weatherford punted, that strategy was successfully executed, much to the consternation of the 54,878 in the Soldier Field seats.

The fourth time, Weatherford's punt didn't quite make it, Hester fielding the ball on the sideline side of the left hash marks, where he serpentined his way untouched through the Saints' punt coverage unit for his NFL-record sixth return touchdown of the season.

"I let my team down," Weatherford said.

Hester also caught a 55-yard scoring pass between coverage by cornerback Jason Craft, subbing for the injured Mike McKenzie, and safety Josh Bullocks.

"This is the way our season has been," linebacker Scott Fujita said. "Lots of up and downs. Unfortunately, more bad than good this year. And that's kind of a shame. It was a weird, weird year. Everyone battled. We had to fight our way back into playoff contention and we couldn't get it done when he had to, unfortunately."

Yet for Sean Payton, who 11 months ago watched as his team was overmatched by a solid Bears defense and an opportunistic Chicago offense that would eventually lose to the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl, Sunday's venue and the result were only coincidental.

"It's different," Payton said. "Different teams, different circumstances. An NFC championship game and 7-9. It's an irony that the season ended here, but we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

"We start this offseason with free agency and the draft and that's where our focus is going to be: on improving this team and getting ourselves back into the postseason next year where we belong." 

Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3814. 